Hi Jenny, I looked at your lace very carefully and have been thinking about it off and on since you wrote your message. I've mangled lots of lace and even more handwoven linen, and I think your piece is too small to judge whether mangling is a good thing or a bad thing to do to lace. The outside trail has been distorted because there just isn't enough lace for it to keep its shape.
If you need convincing, maybe try mangling some linen fabric. Find two pieces (try an antique store), wash both, mangle one, dry both on a line, iron the one not mangled, and compare. Look for shine, suppleness, smoothness, stiffness, and flatness. If it's a damask, look for the pattern, often flowers as it is in lace. You should see the pattern is more prominant, shinier, in the mangled linen. The word mangle is unfortunate. There's nothing twisted about mangling. It's really "wet finishing" or "smoothing with pressure", and it takes some practice to get good at it. Sally \When it comes to mangling linen lace - I am in two minds on this subject as \I just tried it on a small piece of linen Bedfordshire lace and ... click \the very bottom picture on http://www.brandis.com.au/craft/Lace/201304.html - To unsubscribe send email to [email protected] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [email protected]. For help, write to [email protected]. Photo site: http://www.flickr.com/photos/lacemaker/sets/
